United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to Look North's Mark Tulip (MT) ahead of Carlisle's League One match away to Charlton, Abbott though first looking back on United's 3-0 victory at Huish Park last Saturday :
It's a benchmark as well isn't it. To be fair people say you should be expected to go to Yeovil and win because they are in the bottom four but we have never, ever got more than a point there since Yeovil have been promoted. So, we think that is a fantastic result and it would be no more difficult or less difficult than going to places like Charlton because that is the league this season.
But, I think if we can come away from Saturday-Tuesday unscathed and with some points then we can feel pretty pleased with our work and I think there will be a really big optimism out there in the town that this team is maybe there to stay around where they are at the moment. There is lot of a hard work before that is done but we are certainly looking forward to the challenge on Saturday and then taknig on Sheffield Wednesday, two great games, two Premiership teams not so many years ago so it is a real benchmark for us really for where we have come from.
MT
And a four match unbeaten run really does give a potential platform that you might look back on at the end of the season and think that was the time?
GA
Well, it has come at an important time because we had just had a sticky performance at Chesterfield and I think that in and amongst the last six games is the only sticky period we have had in those games. We had the few games poor run but at long last, I dare not say it but we are seeming to find some consistency, but I don't want to say it too loudly because football keeps kicking you in the teeth when you think you have cracked it. But, we just go one at a time, the old boring statement, one at a time, see if we can continue to pick up unbeaten games and pick up points, and the league will be a lot healthier for us if we manage to do that.
MT
Can you put your finger on where that consistency seems to be? Is it just all around the team that everybody is just perhaps doing their jobs that little bit better?
GA
Yeah, I mean we had a real tough time two or three weeks ago about what we wanted as a staff and what the players were giving, and we all talked about the unity within the team. I think the key was rather than praising individuals we played more as a team and every man helped the next man, and that was the base from which we started and it proved pretty decent. Now we have got a lot more players playing with a lot more confidence than they had been, and as a result of that the team and the whole sort of team performances have improved and we look not bad at the moment. But, that is just at the moment.
MT
There is huge play-off potential but I suppose it is that very talented set of lads doing it on a calm and consistent basis?
GA
Yeah, I mean you never get anybody from within the club at the minute talking about play-offs and anything more than the next three or four games. If we can go another four unbeaten and then another four unbeaten then you certainly start getting into the 25-30 game mark and you start thinking yeah, we are here to stay. But, there is a lot of work to be done at the minute, we are still really in the early stage of the season, but we have to have ambition and our ambition is to be up and around where we are at the moment and a bit further. So, the more games we go unbeaten the more chance we have got of realising that.
MT
On a general point, you mentioned that (Roberto) Mancini, and all that networking you were able to do, and in a sense for clubs like Carlisle perhaps you are pitting against some clubs with more money rolling in, is it the loan market, can that be the key difference between reaching your goals and not reaching your goals?
GA
Yeah, because I think for sure the problem we have got is all the players available, the top players available, within our sort of league set-up, our league structure, go to the biggest and the best payers, and we are not the biggest and the best payers. The Huddersfields and the Sheffield Wednesdays and the Charltons, they are the people, so to get that quality, to find that quality we have to lend them and that is a lot of work we do trying to get that extra bit of quality from the loan market.
If you look at players we have had in the past, the likes of Ben (Marshall) and the likes of James Chester and people like that, Adam Clayton, we have had some terrific loan players and that just gives us a fighting chance to keep our quality as high as others who can afford to bring them in on a permanent basis. In an ideal world we would have more permanent, but it is not ideal for us at the minute, so we have to find a way of trying to match and compete, and that is one area which we can do it in.
MT
And some of your more recent signings, your Jon-Paul McGoverns, your (Lee) Millers, you must be very pleased with what they have done?
GA
Yeah, I mean Lee has come in and has been a big player for us in terms of giving us that physical presence and his goals as well early on. J-P now, I think his last two games he has been terrific, Andy (Welsh) is struggling with his injury but that will come and you know you want players to come in but you don't always have instant success with them. But, at the minute we are pleased with what we have got, we are pleased with the players we have already had, and players are coming back to something like their best form. Some of them didn't start off as well as they did last year but they are now finding their feet and the team as a whole seems to be playing some decent football.